Lot Essay
It is particularly rare to find a full group of seven on such steele. The very columnar style of depicting the attendant figures is a peculiar trait of the Northern Qi period. Cf. a large steele from the Cleveland Museum of Art, depicting Maitreya Buddha, where the mandorla is also carved with flying asparas, illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture, pl. 41; see ibid, pl. 45 for another marble steele with the mandorla is adorned with a floral garland also held by flying apsaras among the naga trees.
For a discussion of comparable examples, see National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Bulletin, vo. XIV, no. 6, January-February, 1980, Yen Chuan-ying, The Double Tree Motif of Chinese Buddhist Iconography, expecially fig. 14. See also Siren, Chinese Sculpture, 1925, vol. III, pl. 245; and Matsubara, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, pls. 141a- b and 115a and b.
For a discussion of comparable examples, see National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Bulletin, vo. XIV, no. 6, January-February, 1980, Yen Chuan-ying, The Double Tree Motif of Chinese Buddhist Iconography, expecially fig. 14. See also Siren, Chinese Sculpture, 1925, vol. III, pl. 245; and Matsubara, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, pls. 141a- b and 115a and b.